Renovation Near Sydney Opens Home Onto a Lush Garden
How to unobtrusively add space and flexibility to a modest, single-story home perched atop a steeply sloping site? These were the questions architect Christopher Polly sought to answer when designing and managing the renovation of a home in Sydney’s Annandale suburb.
The façade of the interwar dwelling was painted bright white and left largely unchanged, with a sole burst of color coming from a yellow DesignByThem "tomtom" letterbox. Though the extension is invisible from the street, architect Christopher Polly says it provides "significant additional freedom for the owners and their three young children to grow into."
Polly solved the conundrum by inserting an extension behind and beneath the original home to dramatically increase its floor space and exposure to sunlight. Light tunnels through the renovated home, entering through the addition’s glass walls and skylights, and refracting off vaulted ceilings. The spacious sensation created by this light isn't illusory. Polly’s design doubled the number of living spaces, bedrooms, and bathrooms. The home owners and their three children now have the freedom to retreat to their own areas or congregate in one of the residence’s generous communal spaces.
The addition’s two stories of cedar-framed sliding doors and window provide generous views of the house’s prized jacaranda tree. The addition’s polished concrete floor and white cladding extend into the garden, drawing occupants to the serene rear porch. There, they can relax on stools designed by Alvar Aalto and Charles Wilson while admiring the luscious greenery.
The extension’s lower level flows uninterrupted from the garden to the kitchen. Storage units hidden under the staircase give the living spaces an uncluttered feel. A Skygarden pendant by Marcel Wanders hangs over Snow 300 dining chairs by James Richardson, providing light in those rare hours when sunlight isn’t streaming in.
Thanks to the extension’s vaulted ceiling, the master bedroom and minimalist staircase have views of the sky. Polly admits to having sacrificed floor area so that the full-height stairwell could achieve a stronger connection with the outdoors. Toyo Ito Mayhuma pendants hang from the ceiling, accentuating the space’s dramatic height.
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